State plans to expand commuter trains for Worcester

Thursday

Nov 14, 2013 at 6:00 AMNov 14, 2013 at 9:53 PM

By John J. Monahan, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — State transportation officials who are starting work on a $15 million upgrade to the commuter rail tracks on the Worcester line, said Wednesday they plan to expand commuter rail service between Worcester and Boston to 40 trips each weekday starting early next year.

Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey, in Worcester Wednesday with the Department of Transportation board of directors who met at Union Station, said the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is deciding when to schedule an additional seven one-way weekday trips.

The Worcester line now has the second-highest ridership of the state's commuter rail service, he said, with Providence logging the highest ridership.

MBTA Deputy General Manager Jonathan Davis said the startup of the new trains depends in part on completion of work on the Yawkey Way train station in Boston that will free up track used by the Worcester-Boston trains.

"We should be able to proceed in late December or early January," Mr. Davis said, referring to the additional Boston-Worcester trains.

While the expanded service will go ahead before the planned track upgrades are completed over the next two years, Mr. Davey said, the number of trains can be increased now because the state last year purchased the track used by the commuter rail from CSX Corp. With that acquisition, he said, the state assumed responsibility for dispatch and maintenance of the tracks, which are shared with freight trains.

"The reason we can do this now is that we own the tracks. We don't need their permission," Mr. Davey said.

Two public hearings

The transportation secretary said the MBTA is holding hearings next week for people to comment on what times the new trains should run. "We want to know whether people want them midday, a later night train for the Red Sox, or earlier trains, or express trains," he said.

"Within the confines of the operation, we really want to hear from folks, what they want to do," Mr. Davey said. The first of those two hearings will be at 7:30 p.m. Mondayat the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission office at Union Station. A second hearing will be Nov. 20 at Nevins Hall, Memorial Building, Framingham. Anyone unable to attend a meeting, may email a comment on the expanded service planning by Nov. 22 to worcesterline2013@mbta.com.

The board of directors oversees both the DOT and MBTA, which is part of the DOT but retains a separate legal existence.

The funding agreement for the track upgrades with the MBTA calls for half the funds to be spent in 2014 and the other half in 2015.

Burns Bridge update

The board also heard a report from state Highway Administrator Frank DePaola that the replacement of the Kenneth F. Burns Bridge on Route 9 over Lake Quinsigamond is nearly halfway completed.

He said a key step in the project will come at the end of January when the first half of the bridge is completed and traffic using the old bridge will be shifted over to the new span. That will allow demolition of the old bridge, so that the second half of the span can be built where the old bridge now stands.

Mr. DePaola said the project is on schedule with all the structural steel on the first half of the new bridge completed. The concrete bridge deck is now being cast on that section of the new bridge.

"Our plan is to complete the bridge deck the next two weeks, then work on the approaches to the new bridge, " Mr. DePaola said. "Our goal is to switch the Route 9 traffic over to the new bridge by the end of January so that over this winter we can do the demolition of the old bridge."

As part of the second span construction, which will be finished in the spring or summer of 2015, he said, contractors will again be driving deep piles along the lake bed to support the new structure. He said some of the piles have been driven 200 feet below the surface of the water to reach bedrock. For the first half of the project about 30 piles were set in place, he said.

Contractors will limit the hours of operation of pile driving again to avoid the noise at night.

Mr. DePaola said there has been some congestion during peak commute hours with traffic going both ways on the old bridge. Police officers preventing cars from stopping in intersections have helped keep gridlock and those delays at a minimum.